The present invention generally pertains to a system and method for tracking victims of a mass casualty incident, and more particularly pertains to systems and methods for tracking victims utilizing portable data.
A mass casualty incident may arise from a natural disaster (i.e., tornado, earthquake, flood, etc.), emergency situations (i.e., hazardous material spills, fires, traffic accidents, plane crashes, etc.), or from terrorist activity. A mass casualty incident represents a major logistical challenge for emergency response personnel who, must locate, triage, treat, stage, transport, and deliver numerous victims to medical facilities or a morgue. Time is of the essence in the ability to ascertain the identification, status, and medical condition of the victims. During the emergency, disaster or incident, traditional data/communication field systems (such as telephone, cellular, RF transmissions, etc.) could be xe2x80x9cdownxe2x80x9d or overloaded, suggesting the prudence of having an alternative or supplementary method of data communication.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a mobile, field-deployable system used during an emergency, disaster, terrorist attack, or other mass casualty incident. This system creates high capacity, machine-readable media (such as PDF417 barcodes) which are transportable with the victim to provide such information as: physical characteristics; nature of injury; medical condition; triage priority; initial treatment; sample data (physical or environmental); photo; and like or similar information that is relevant to the identification, treatment, or disposition of a victim. It is another aspect of the present invention to provide machine-readable information that can be read by xe2x80x9cdownstreamxe2x80x9d agencies or care providers such as staging areas, EMS ambulances or other transporters, hospitals, morgues, test facilities, etc. to assist in the identification, treatment, or disposition of the victim.
The use of portable data tags is extremely beneficial when normal communication systems are non-functional. Also, because time is of the essence in treating victims, the flow and accessibility of such critical information is very important so as to prevent many triage tasks from being repeated.
These and other features, advantages, and objects of the present invention will be further understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art by reference to the following specification, claims, and appended drawings.